Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I happen to work with a bunch of education researchers on exactly the issue of assessment and COVID. A lot of the conflicting points you've raised are valid.

When children are receiving very limited instructional time, the opportunity costs of giving standardized tests are very high. And there are indeed significant issues of validity--if you're at home, who is helping? How are the environment and materials? If in school--is it a normal learning environment for the child? Has the child ever been in a school/this school/with these adults? Who even will be tested? The students who are most estranged from schools right now are not likely to show up.

However, various kinds of assessments do provide important benchmarks which are used for accountability for the classroom, school, and district? A lot of the experts are currently arguing that results need to be divorced from accountability as a result of the issues above, but I'm not so sure I agree. It does not seem reasonable for schools, teachers, and districts to be held completely non-responsible for their outcomes.

Frankly, standardized tests were not designed to be performed in such widely varied environments--they will heavily skew the results. These tests were also not designed to help us answer more political questions such as whether schools should be in person. The other question is whether we really need standardized tests to tell us something we already know.

In theory, you could compare in-person districts with distance learning districts, but this comes up against issues of comparability of large assessments. There are also so many variables that I'm not sure we can account for.

Anyway, my point is basically none of you are wrong. It's a fu**ing conundrum.

Thank you! That’s an insightful summary.

One additional issue not distinctly observable in standardized tests results: the social and emotional harm being done to children by DL.

Anonymous wrote:I happen to work with a bunch of education researchers on exactly the issue of assessment and COVID. A lot of the conflicting points you've raised are valid.

When children are receiving very limited instructional time, the opportunity costs of giving standardized tests are very high. And there are indeed significant issues of validity--if you're at home, who is helping? How are the environment and materials? If in school--is it a normal learning environment for the child? Has the child ever been in a school/this school/with these adults? Who even will be tested? The students who are most estranged from schools right now are not likely to show up.

However, various kinds of assessments do provide important benchmarks which are used for accountability for the classroom, school, and district? A lot of the experts are currently arguing that results need to be divorced from accountability as a result of the issues above, but I'm not so sure I agree. It does not seem reasonable for schools, teachers, and districts to be held completely non-responsible for their outcomes.

Frankly, standardized tests were not designed to be performed in such widely varied environments--they will heavily skew the results. These tests were also not designed to help us answer more political questions such as whether schools should be in person. The other question is whether we really need standardized tests to tell us something we already know.

In theory, you could compare in-person districts with distance learning districts, but this comes up against issues of comparability of large assessments. There are also so many variables that I'm not sure we can account for.

Anyway, my point is basically none of you are wrong. It's a fu**ing conundrum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of teachers claiming DL is going swimmingly. Let’s start testing kids and find out exactly how well it’s going.

thyeve been testing them a ton. Too much if you ask me because their educational time is already limited and no lesrning occurs while testing.

I'm tired of everyone trying to prove they're right. The kids arent learning as much, thats obvious, but the entire world is in the same boat. Everyone is doin the best they can.

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of teachers claiming DL is going swimmingly. Let’s start testing kids and find out exactly how well it’s going.

Anonymous wrote:Omg are you serious? I agree with the problem but the LAST thing we need is more standardized tests.

Anonymous wrote:My kid gets 1.5 hours of live math instruction per week. He does not need any of that time taken away by more standardized testing that will likely only show that he and his classmates need more live math instruction per week.

Anonymous wrote:These kids are not learning anything with remote “learning.” We should be aggressively measuring how fall they are falling behind. We need a lot more information about the size of the hole we are digging for these kids.

Anonymous wrote:You do realize standardized testing is not a measure of progress or intelligence and is based in racism right?

The most successful countries do not even use standardized testing and if they do children are taught how to take these tests.

I went to school in Japan and testing there is very high stakes, you can't even get into any good HS without a test. However they teach you how to take tests from K AND studying/learning.

Part of test taking is HOW to take it, which the US doesn't explicitly teach. And how could we focus on that when so many kids can't even read?

Your middle and upper SES kids might be ok, because mommy or daddy has time to help or a tutor but that's not the same for all kids or kids whose disabilities make it really difficult. And no they can't be except because St Coletta takes most of the exemptions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I completely agree. We need to start seeing where the children are at currently and where we can begin to fill in the gaps before they go back to the classrooms physically. In other words, we need a game plan. Where can we tweak the curriculum, for next year, to focus on standards that the students struggled with last year? As far as cheating... students cheat online and in the classroom. This is nothing new. There are many sights like hapara that assist with monitoring and locking sites. Any little bit helps

Are you not doing any testing now? I don’t understand why you are lacking for information.

My kids take A-Nets in ELA and math. They take regular end-of-unit quizzes in Math. They do writing assessments.

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I completely agree. We need to start seeing where the children are at currently and where we can begin to fill in the gaps before they go back to the classrooms physically. In other words, we need a game plan. Where can we tweak the curriculum, for next year, to focus on standards that the students struggled with last year? As far as cheating... students cheat online and in the classroom. This is nothing new. There are many sights like hapara that assist with monitoring and locking sites. Any little bit helps

Anonymous wrote:Standardized testing is a waste of instructional time and resources. You’re misguided.